Walney resident complains after community service work on tree

David Crawford, from Walney, said it was 'ridiculous' that they had not been picked up and accused the group of only doing 'half a job' in his garden when they visited.

The state of Mr Crawford's garden after the community payback team visited (Image: Submitted)

Photos shared by Mr Crawford show his garden covered in cuttings that he says were left lying around after the workers visited his property. Tree branches had also been left in his front garden. 

The Ministry of Justice confirmed that the ex-offenders undertook tree maintenance works in the area as part of their unpaid work. It also revealed that the council was due to collect the cuttings the next day but it was not cleared up for ten days because of staff shortages and vehicle breakdowns. 

The cuttings were not cleared up for ten days (Image: Submitted)

The department added that it is the Probation Service's responsibility to clear any waste created by community payback teams.

"The trees were overgrowing. That's why they came in and cut everything down," Mr Crawford said. The tree was in his backyard and the workers offered to cut it.

A Probation Service spokesperson said: “We deliver more than five million hours of community payback activities every year cleaning up our neighbourhoods and communities.

The Probation Service is responsible for the community payback teams (Image: Submitted)
“This issue was resolved on Wednesday but we apologise to any local residents for the delay in clearing these cuttings and are working with the council to prevent this being repeated."

Community sentences are issued to offenders who have been convicted of a crime by a court but are not sent to prison. The sentences are often given for crimes such as damaging property, theft and assault.

The court delivers them if it thinks that it will mean the offender is more likely to stop committing crime than if they go to prison, it is the first time they have committed the crime, or they have a mental health condition that affects their behaviour. 

Unpaid work in their local area done by offenders through their sentence is called 'community payback.' Another typical example of community payback would be removing graffiti.